Wickes customer privacy notice

Wickes Building Supplies Limited ("Wickes", "we", or "us") is responsible for the use of personal information described in this notice. Wickes is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller and our contact details can be found at the end of this notice.

This notice explains how Wickes and our group companies (“Wickes Group”) use your personal information (sometimes referred to as "personal data") in various scenarios including when you visit this website (www.wickes.co.uk) "the Website" and when you visit our stores. This notice is broken down into separate sections to give some specific detail about how we use your personal information in each scenario.

For further information on how Wickes Group, including Gas Fast Limited (trading as Wickes Solar) use your personal information, please see the “Other Disclosures” section.

If you are applying for a job with us, we have a separate microsite (www.wickescareers.co.uk) that explains how we use recruitment information.

Personal information is any information relating to an individual who can be identified directly or indirectly, often by name, account number, location, an online identifier or other factors specific to their identity. It is referred to as "personal data" in data protection law. Personal information may include “special category data” relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health. Personal information can also include criminal records and allegations of crime.

As a rule, we do not collect “special category data” about visitors to our website or our customers or suppliers. The exception is where we identify suspected criminal activity such as fraudulent claims or the use of stolen payment card details. In this case we will record details of the suspected criminal activity and may take appropriate action, including refusing to accept orders, make payments or give refunds. We may also report the incident to the relevant bank or payment card issuer or to the police or other appropriate authorities.

See below for details of how we may use your personal information.

You can visit and browse our website without providing your name or contact details.

Like many websites, our server logs capture details of your operating system, browser software, IP (Internet Protocol) address and Uniform Resource Locator (URL), including the date and time of your visit.

When you use our website or app, either browsing or to make a purchase, we collect some Personal Data through cookies and similar technologies.

We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our websites and to allow us and third parties to tailor ads you see on ours and other websites. For more information, please see our full Cookie policy below.

You may choose to provide your contact details (name, address, business, job title, email address, telephone number) if you do any of these things:

• Buy or return things in store
• Use our click and collect or delivery services
• Shop online (either as a guest or using your account)
• Enter a competition
• Sign up for news and offers
• Request a brochure or make an enquiry

When you enter a competition or promotional feature we may also ask for details such as your name, address, email address and telephone number so we can administer the competition and notify winners.

Separate terms and conditions may apply when you sign up to an account with us or if you decide to participate in a competition so please make sure that you read them at the relevant time.

We collect this information for the purposes of our legitimate interests for:

• maintaining and managing the Website;
• keeping you informed of goods and services we think you would be interested in (provided we have not received an opt out for marketing from you);
• tailoring the Website for your needs; and
• to ensure the Website is kept secure.

We will not use personal information about you in a way which conflicts negatively with your rights and freedoms, and will monitor this from time to time.

If you purchase products or services from us from our Website or in store, we may use your personal information (which includes your contact details such as your name, address, email address and mobile number) in the following ways.

Enquiries and Information:

• to answer your questions or provide you with information you have requested

• to keep track of sales and enquiries

• to arrange an appointment to discuss and consider your needs

• to notify you about important changes or developments to our site or services

  Orders and Account Management:

• to place and process your order

• to help with any questions if you have started an order but not completed it

• to arrange visits to your home (e.g. to carry out a survey or installation)

• to manage deliveries, returns and refunds which includes sharing your data to our suppliers to enable us to fulfil an order

• to check in on the progress of an order, including the installer's work

• to manage your account, including carrying out identity checks (if applicable)

• to manage your credit account (if applicable) including carrying out credit checks and progressing finance agreements for orders

Customer Relationship:

• to monitor how our customers transact with us in store and online, for example by checking who has redeemed vouchers or bought items using our mobile app, website or other facility (for more information see Understanding Our Customers below)

• to contact you (under Legitimate Interests) for your views on our products and services via the following third parties:

• InMoment: To survey our customers via email or SMS about their experience of shopping with us.

  - PowerReviews: To invite our customers via email to submit a review of our products or services.

• to publish trends and/or to improve usefulness and content of our website

• to track activity on our site to provide a more personalised online experience and to send you the most relevant information about our products and services

• to link with social media sites and services, for example, for advertising purposes for market research purposes, by tracking activity on our site or in store (on an anonymous basis) to identify trends and/or to improve usefulness and content

• to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns using email analytics to track emails sent, how many were opened and whether links were followed

• to email you via a third party, SaleCycle, to invite you to complete any uncompleted purchase via our website. We do this under Legitimate Interests.

You can unsubscribe from marketing messages at any time as explained below at Marketing – Right to Opt Out.

Other:

• for product liability purposes

• to deal with enquiries and complaints

• for claims management and insurance purposes

• for general record keeping purposes.

We process this information for the purposes of:

• performance of a contract with you (e.g. to provide you with the goods and services you have requested);

• performance of a legal obligation (e.g. to comply with statutory obligations owed to our customers); and

• where we have a legitimate interest to use your information, provided such interest does not impact your rights and freedoms (e.g. to monitor use of the website connected to your sale and to protect and defend our rights).

Home Improvers Community Events:

We occasionally host Home Improvers Community events in store to celebrate local trade and connect our customers. These events may include product showcases, demonstrations, and exclusive offers.

To help manage attendance and engagement, we may contact you via WhatsApp, to confirm attendance and share updates about the event you have registered for. If you opt in, we may also send occasional marketing messages about future events and offers. You can opt out at any time. Your phone number will not be shared externally and will only be used for the purposes described.

We occasionally film our in-store events for promotional purposes on our social media channels. Filming will occur only in designated areas, clearly marked. If you would prefer not to be filmed, please avoid these areas or speak to a team member.

We also run friend referral schemes via WhatsApp, where you can invite others to attend and earn rewards. Participation is entirely optional, and full details (including how rewards are issued) are provided at the time of referral.

We will send marketing to you from time to time where we have a legitimate interest to do so, or where we have your consent. The marketing we undertake varies based on how you interact with us and whether we have consent or not. If you sign up to receive updates or have bought or enquired about our products or services, we may use the information we collect to let you know about our other products and services which may be of interest to you and to keep you updated with information about promotional offers and what is coming soon. When you first transact with us online, you will be given the option to opt out of receiving marketing messages. If you do not choose to opt out of receiving marketing messages (known as the ‘soft opt in’), we will send you marketing messages.

To inform our marketing to you, we review the products and services you buy and we also analyse your use of our website and the searches you make on this and other websites. We use this information to tailor the marketing you receive from us so it is as relevant as possible. This may include serving you with adverts on social media and other third party websites.

For this identity-based targeting, we use your email address to generate a secure, pseudonymised ID (EUID). This process involves our joint controller, The Trade Desk Limited. Your original email address is immediately deleted by the operator after the ID is created and is not stored or logged.

You can find full details on The Trade Desk's joint controller role, and manage your choices and revoke your consent for this identity processing at any time by visiting the EUID Privacy Notice and Control Portal: https://www.transparentadvertising.eu/privacy.

If you agree, we may pass your information to suppliers and manufacturers who are interested in getting in touch with you about their products and services, including other companies in our group.

You can opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time. We will give you the option to opt out of marketing at the time we collect your details (or opt in to marketing in some cases). See Your Rights below to understand how to opt out from our marketing.

Please note that we may send you service messages relating to your purchases which do not need your consent to marketing to you. This may include messages to check whether you need help with your order or messages asking you to review any products that you have purchased.

Our lawful basis for undertaking this activity is that we have a legitimate interest to provide you with information about us and the goods and services that we sell. We are of the view that this does not infringe your rights and freedoms on the basis that you are always given the chance to opt out of such marketing as explained below at "Your rights and how to contact us."

So that we can provide a better service, we want to understand the shopping patterns of our customers, how customers select the products and services they ultimately buy, which apps and technology customers prefer to use, and how successful our advertising and promotional campaigns have been. We may use a number of different techniques to do this which includes some of the activities outlined above, but in particular:

• We never see or store your payment card details. We do use a unique encrypted token that can tell the same payment card is used in different places (in store, online or on the Wickes app). This helps us build a complete picture of all the things people buy from Wickes.

• We monitor which customers redeem vouchers using a code that makes the offer personal to you. We may also link your in-store order details with your online account information and your shopping patterns on our website and mobile app so we have a complete picture of all the things you buy from Wickes.

• We use email analytics to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. Marketing emails contain a pixel which tracks how many emails were sent, how many were opened, whether emails were forwarded and whether links in the email were followed. You can opt out of marketing at any time, and specifically tracking – see below for more information under "Your rights and how to contact us".

• We may monitor other websites you visit and the goods and services you look for using search engines in order to provide you with information about products and services from Wickes which are most relevant to you.

• We may connect with social media sites so that we can better target our advertising while you are using these services and improve the relevance of what you see where we have a lawful basis to do so such as consent to market.

• We also use cookies to track online activity. You can find out more about this in our Cookies Policy https://www.wickes.co.uk/cookies. The information collected by cookies does not in itself identify a visitor to our site but if you are a customer or account holder we may be able to identify you from both sets of information combined. You can manage your preferences to consent to what cookies you want to be placed and we rely on consent as our lawful basis.

• To provide you with the best possible service, and to improve our products and marketing, we analyse your interactions with us, both online and in store. This analysis may involve the use of profiling techniques, using data gathered from your purchases, website usage, and interactions with our marketing materials. We do not use these techniques for automated decision making that significantly affects you. You have the right to object to this profiling, and you can contact us to exercise this right.

Unless specifically mentioned above, we use your information for the purposes of our legitimate interests for:

• helping improve our offerings and to understand future needs and demands of our customer base;

• keeping you informed of goods and services we think you would be interested in (provided we have not received an opt out for marketing from you) through different channels such as social media and email;

• tailoring advertisements for your needs; and

• checking whether our marketing is effective.

We will not use personal information about you in a way which conflicts negatively with your rights and freedoms, and will monitor this from time to time.

Some telephone calls may be recorded or monitored, for example calls to our customer services teams. Call recording and monitoring may be carried out for the following purposes:

• Training and quality control

• As evidence of conversations

• For the prevention or detection of crime (e.g. fraudulent claims)

We operate CCTV systems in our stores and car parks for the security of both customers and colleagues, so your image may be recorded on these systems during your visit. Your car number plate may also be recorded to manage parking restrictions.

We undertake this monitoring where we have a legal obligation to do so and a legitimate interest. This is for the prevention and detection of crime, and protection of persons and property, and also to protect and defend our rights.

We will retain your personal information for as long as needed for the legitimate business purposes described above.

If you are a visitor to the website, we will retain your information for a limited period in order to respond to your query, provide you with the information you require or to send you updates on our products and services for as long as you indicate that you are happy for us to do so. We may retain your contact details if you opt out for marketing to ensure we do not market to you again, e.g. in a suppression list.

If you make a one-off purchase, we normally keep records of the transaction for 7 years. If you are an account customer or a supplier, we normally keep records for 7 years after the closure of your account or the last purchase or sale you made. In all cases, this is for accounting, tax and product liability purposes.

Your information may be retained for longer than this if there are valid legal grounds for us to do so, for example if required by law or court order, or as needed to defend or pursue legal claims.

Like most organisations, we engage service providers to run our website and IT systems, to help us administer accounts, to conduct credit checks and fraud screening, and to handle marketing campaigns. We also work with a large number of suppliers who provide products and delivery services to us.

We will only provide these companies with the information they need to deliver the service we have engaged them for and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose. Whenever we share personal information about our customers or visitors to our website with our service providers, we will put in place contracts which require the service provider to protect the information and keep it secure. See also Transferring information to other countries below.

We may share your personal information with other companies within the Wickes Group including with Gas Fast Limited (trading as Wickes Solar), to:

• Provide you with a high-quality, personalised, and tailored service.

• Send you relevant marketing communications across our Group, where you have given your consent or where otherwise permitted by law.

The company that is responsible for your personal information will be the company that is named in any terms and conditions or messages sent to you.

Your information may be shared within the Wickes Group for account management, analysis and reporting.

Your personal data may be disclosed to the following third parties for the purposes described above:

• tax, customs and excise authorities
• regulators, courts and the police
• fraud screening agencies
• central and local government
• insurance companies
• other professional advisors

We may also disclose your personal information if we believe that the disclosure is necessary to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or otherwise protect and defend our rights, property or the safety of our customers and other users of the website.

We may disclose and/or transfer your personal information in connection with a reorganisation of all or part of our business, if the majority of our shares are bought by another company or if we transfer all or some of our assets to another company.

If you have submitted an enquiry via a Wickes Solar enquiry form, we will share your information with Gas Fast Limited (trading as Wickes Solar) so that they can contact you about your enquiry.

Some of the companies who provide services to us may be located outside the United Kingdom. We use IT service providers who are located in India, for example. As a result, your personal information may be transferred outside the UK. We will ensure that those service providers comply with any legal requirements that apply to the transfer of personal information outside the UK, including, where appropriate, requiring the service provider to enter into legal safeguards for transfers of data.

We are committed to safeguarding the personal information you provide to us. We use appropriate measures to protect the information that you submit through our website and the information we collect and store about our customers. For further details, please see our Security Online section: https://www.wickes.co.uk/security. Internally, we restrict access to personal information. Only employees who need the information in order to do their jobs have access to it.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data against loss, theft and unauthorised use, access or modification.

If you have created an account or registered to use any online services, your account details may be password protected. It is your responsibility to keep your password confidential and to sign out once you have finished browsing.

Links may be provided on our website to other websites that are not operated by us. If you use these links, you will leave our website.

You should note that we are not responsible for the contents of any third party website. External sites will have their own privacy policies which you should read carefully.

Marketing – Right to Opt Out

You can opt out of all or some marketing that you receive from us in many ways:

• If you have an online account you can access, update and correct your personal information – including your marketing choices – using the account management facilities.

• You can opt out of receiving marketing at any time by using the unsubscribe option in the message or by contacting our customer service team via https://www.wickes.co.uk/contactus.

• You can also opt out of postal and telephone marketing by contacting us using the contact us link on the website.

If you prefer not to receive marketing which is tailored to suit your customer profile, please contact our customer service team https://www.wickes.co.uk/contactus. You will still receive generic marketing unless you opt out of receiving marketing entirely.

If you opt out of receiving marketing emails from Wickes, you will no longer receive any of the tracking pixels that are associated with them. You can find out more about how to disable Email Analytics in our Cookies Policy via https://www.wickes.co.uk/cookies.

Access and Correction

If you would like to correct or update any of your other personal information, or if you would like a copy of the personal information we hold, please contact us at the address below. We may need to ask for proof of your identity before we can respond to your request. We are committed to ensuring that all customers can exercise their rights of access without barriers. Therefore if you require any reasonable adjustments to be made in order to access and/or receive your personal data in a way which meets your individual needs, please inform us either in an email or over the phone and we will work with you to carry out your request in the most suitable way possible.

Other Rights

You may also have the following rights in relation to your personal information:

• in certain circumstances, the right to restrict or object to the processing of your personal information (including profiling), or request that your personal information is deleted

• where you have provided personal information voluntarily, or otherwise consented to its use, the right to withdraw your consent

• in certain circumstances, the right to receive a copy of the personal information which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to request that we transfer that information to another party (known as “data portability”)

• the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority (see further below).

We are committed to ensuring that all customers can exercise their rights of access without barriers. Therefore, if you require any reasonable adjustments to be made in order to access and/or receive your personal data in a way which meets your individual needs, please inform us either in an email or over the phone and we will work with you to carry out your request in the most suitable way possible.

If you have a query about this privacy policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer by writing to them via:

Wickes Building Supplies Limited Data Protection Officer Vision House 19 Colonial Way Watford WD24 4JL

Or emailing them at:

GDPR@wickes.co.uk (marking emails for the attention of the Data Protection Officer)

Please note that you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe we are not handling your data in accordance with the UK GDPR.

You can contact the ICO via their web-form at ICO.org.uk/concerns/ or call the ICO helpline on +44 (0)303 123 1113, postal address:

Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF